Last Friday, the Appellate Division provided another reminder that it is not “bad faith” for a lender to abide by the terms of its mortgage with a borrower. In Warner v. Sovereign Bank , borrowers fell behind on their residential mortgage and contacted their lender to request a modification...

The WCAB has issued two noteworthy panel decisions involving home health care services in light of Neri Hernandez (en banc). In each of these decisions, which involved critically injured workers, the WCAB has signaled in very strong terms that it will not tolerate a defendant's bad-faith or frivolous...

Acknowledging that Iowa law recognized a common-law cause of action against an insurer for bad-faith denial or delay of insurance benefits, and the tort has been extended to include workers' compensation cases, an Iowa appellate court nevertheless affirmed summary judgment in favor of an insurer...

Insurance adjusters are people knowledgeable in insurance retained by an insurer for the purpose of assisting the insured in proving a loss to the insurer. A person who expresses to the insured the fidelity and good faith of the insurer. The adjuster is not expected nor required to be perfect. In Murphy...

By Tyler Gerking
On July 29, 2014, I spoke on a panel about recent developments in California bad faith law and related trends. My co-presenter was Robert K. Scott of The Law Offices of Robert K. Scott, and we gave the presentation at ACI’s 28th National Advanced Forum on Bad Faith Claims &...

On November 4, 2014, LexisNexis author William T. Barker will speak at the 1st Annual Bad Faith Litigation Strategies ExecuSummit on "Recent Developments in Third-Party Bad Faith: The American Law Institute Principles of the Law of Liability Insurance." Mr. Barker is the co-author, (with Ronald...

By Michael R. Kelley
If you or your clients have ever had the experience of submitting a claim to an insurance company, you probably know how difficult it can be to get the insurance company to pay the full amount of damages. Even if the company agrees that a loss is covered, insurers frequently...

By William T. Barker, Partner, Dentons US LLP
In Advantage Buildings & Exteriors, Inc. v. Mid-Continent Casualty Co., 2014 Mo. App. LEXIS 975 (Sept. 2, 2014), the court recognized that there was no coverage, but still held the insurer liable for bad faith failure to settle because it had failed...

If an insurer is determined to have breached the duty to defend, consequences will attach. It may be that the insurer must pay for the defense costs that it otherwise owed. Or the consequences may be much harsher – the insurer may lose the right to assert otherwise applicable defenses to indemnity...

"After careful review of the record during the course of these proceedings, as well as consideration of the conduct underlying the litigation, the Court finds that this is the exceptionable case where an award of bad faith fees is necessary to compensate Plaintiffs for needless and improper delay...

RENO, Nev. — (Mealey’s) Counsel for a class of homeowners on Feb. 3 asked a jury during opening arguments in the Washoe County, Nevada, Second Judicial District Court to find that an insurer acted in bad faith by relying on an earth movement exclusion to deny coverage for damages sustained...

RENO, Nev. — (Mealey’s) A jury in the Washoe County, Nevada, Second Judicial District Court on Feb. 13 awarded $4.5 million in compensatory damages for a commercial general liability insurer’s breach of its duty of good faith and fair dealing in declining a defense and indemnity for...

A Mississippi appellate court held that the requirement that an employee exhaust his or her administrative remedies before filing a lawsuit for bad faith refusal to pay for disputed medical services and supplies merely ensured that the state’s Workers’ Compensation Commission had determined...

By: Robert K. Cox
In the prior issue of this newsletter, we included an article on the high standard of proof and the practical considerations for a federal government contractor claiming that the federal government acted in bad faith in its contract dealings. You responded with the question, suppose...

Tapas: Small Dishes of Insurance Coverage News & Notes
The Supreme Court of Hawaii held that “an excess liability insurer can bring a cause of action, under the doctrine of equitable subrogation, against a primary liability insurer who in bad faith fails to settle a claim within the limits...

Arson-for-profit is the most dangerous of all methods of attempting insurance fraud. When an insurer has sufficient evidence to suspect an arson for profit attempt and denies the claim it will expect that the insured will sue the insurer for fraud and bad faith. The best way to defeat such an action...

It is the proverbial “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” situation for insurers. An insurer is presented with a policy limits demand to settle for one insured – and it should be accepted based on liability and damages considerations -- but the settlement offered will not...

By Stuart D. Colburn, Esq., and Albert Betts, Jr., Esq., Co-Authors, Texas Workers’ Compensation Law
This year marks an anniversary that will not be celebrated with a parade or even a mention on the local news. But it is significant to those who are a part of the Texas workers’ compensation...

Where a worker sustained fatal injuries in a ditch cave-in and the worker’s widow filed a tort action against the owner of a masonry business alleging negligence, it was appropriate for the insurer under the business’ commercial general liability policy to investigate whether the deceased...